It’s a given we’ll have to move. Neil is at a level of sicko that I wouldn’t put it past him to want to rush over here and be a bastard now that they think I’m dead.

I hum all while Paige paces about the house, she’s still yet to wrap her head fully around the fact that I’ve been nearly mortally wounded and now I’ve got to be on the run.

Suddenly she stops, arms set akimbo and her breath uneven, “But where would we even go? What would we even do?”

Her concerns are valid. There aren’t any good options in Xoxia and leaving the city would be just as dangerous, I’m not sure if I can leave the city. I’ve never tried and I’ve never met anyone who has and came back either.

So that might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the perspective you look from. Either way, being put out from the Vertigo gang meant my employment options were down to begging off the street or those orphanages that most definitely sold children to the abundant creep audience in this city.

That doesn’t mean I’m entirely broke though. Living in a city like this would teach even the dumbest of folk the value of saving up for emergencies, emergencies just like this.

“For now, we should just get into a Hotel.” I offer, “I’ve got enough to hold us out for a month at least, by then Vertigo should be done with whatever mischief they have planned.”

Paige shakes her head, pacing once again, “Do you know of any Hotels in this part of the city that aren’t part of Vertigo’s racket?”

Right, shoot. I facepalm as I realize I’ve actually been to one of said Hotels under his racket. A simple drop off and pick up job, I didn’t ask what I was dropping off or picking up but, in all likelihood, it was some synthetic drug or another.

If we check in to any of Vertigos Hotels it’d be the same as giving the man a phone call and telling him the good news of Christ.

So what’s left then…

“What about the suppressors? I mean, it’s their job to attack people like Steve, and I’ve got a ton of insider info up here.” I tap my noggin, “The stuff I’ve got in here is worth a ton of money, shelter and food. We’ll be safe.”

Paige stares so intently at me I think I’ve got something stuck in my teeth or something. She walks up to me and presses her hand up against my forehead, her face scarred with worry.

“Well, you don’t have a fever, and there aren’t any bruises or sores near your head so…what’s up with the terrible ideas today?” She huffs.

I let out a dejected sigh as I realize just how pink my thought process has been. “Right, the suppressors aren’t our friends.”

“Worse,” she scolds, “They are our enemy’s friends, meaning they aren’t people we want to approach, even if we weren’t metas. Are you sure you’re alright?”

I put her soft, tender hands aside and put up a smile, “I’m fine. I’m just...”

She nods, “Lost? I get it.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been this lost, four to five years to be exact.” She chuckles, understanding my timing, “Before you I was so used to drifting about in the fog, not knowing what tomorrow holds for me, prepared to give up my life even for some scraps of food. I hate to say it but, you and Vertigo gang gave me purpose.”

That’s right, I had plans, I had a future painted clearly in my head, a future with Paige and I and…

It doesn’t matter now. What matters is getting out of this mess.

And to do that…I’d need to get into another mess.

“What if…” I trail off, pausing to think over on this thought again.

Yes, no doubt she’d call this a terrible idea, but I think that’s all we’ve got left now.

“What if?” she urges, thumb playing over my palms.

“What if we went uptown?”

She blinks. “Why not just walk back to Steve then?” She scoffs, tossing my hands away.

“Okay, I know it sounds like a bad idea-”

“Sounds like? I think you should just leave the thinking to me for now.”

“But it’s actually one of our only options.” I sigh, snatching her hands back. “We can’t stay here, they’ll come for you, Neil surely will and I’m not sure I can use my powers as I am right now.”

Stopping time – in a localized manner – puts a strain on my body, one I don’t think it’ll be able to handle as it is now. I’d more than just have a headache and empty stomach if I try it.

“We can’t go to the Suppressors because they’re more likely to turn us over to Steve or even force us into joining rather than give us the help we need.”

The Suppressors, as the name implies, suppress aberrant persons or objects from causing undue harm to the environment, the environment being government property.

They mainly take down rogue metas or products of rogue metas. They’re officially called rogue metas but the truth is they’re Supervillains drunk on their powers, a lot of them are newbies though, at least the ones shown on TV. The more sinister ones you witness first hand or hear about it briefly on the news like the anchor is trying to skip over it.

The Suppressors defeat at the hands of a Supervillain is never paraded on TV like it is with their victories over minor villains.

I guess that makes sense, wouldn’t show off my many losses either.

“Don’t forget that the Suppressors best friend is a Death Droid.” She adds curtly, “Those things are worse than metas.”

Right, she’s got her own trauma with the killing machines.

Time traveller she is, Paige has been through many rough patches, actually, she’s been through all of them in the last two centuries.

Worse of them all is the war between humans and the nameless Alien Invaders that nearly subjugated the entire planet.

The Death Droids were created from stolen scraps of said Alien’s technology. A miracle – or tragedy – occurred when the Droids were born. They did help win the fight, albeit at the cost of nearly half the previous population, but they also couldn’t differentiate between friend or foe, just commands to kill and destroy in anyway capable.

Come to think of it, I doubt those droids that came out at the factory were the real thing. Probably just knock-offs, far too weak to be taken out by a few crazy metas.

“Yes, that too. So, can you see how we’re being backed into a corner here? Uptown is our only hope.”

She rolls her eyes, arms folded, “And how exactly do you plan on surviving there? We can’t get a job without one of the other three gangs knowing about it. If they-”

I cut her short, “I’ll get a job at one of them then.”

“What?” she looks horrified. “You know they aren’t anything like Steve, right? They won’t look at you as a kid, probably just a commodity or a weapon.”

“I’m fine with being a weapon.”

It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, it’s not like I haven’t been offered the choice either.

T.V gave me a chance to earn far more than the crumbs I’ve been living off of with Paige, a chance to give her a better life than this shank of mine, a rusty fan, a bed with bugs and a dirty couch I pulled off the street when I was eight.

But she wouldn’t have it. Said she’s been through worse and in comparison, I was living it up.

“Are you insane!” she all but screams, her voice so high-pitched I fear the mice in this dinky apartment might scare.

“We’ve got to get better than this Paige.” I retort, gesturing to the place we call home as whole. “And if Steve succeeded in killing me, you’d need a generous amount saved up to keep living, even like this. Do you honestly think this is good enough for us? For you?”

She shakes her head all the while, not agreeing with a word I’ve said, “No. You shouldn’t worry about me, I’ve told you countless times that we don’t need to be here, I ha-”

“Oh, here we go again.” I roll my eyes.

“Here we go again?” she repeats, outraged.

I ignore it, “You always go on about this guy you say owes you some favour from a century ago. You know very well that guy isn’t alive.”

“He is! I don’t know how many times I have to say it but he is! He’s a meta, one of the firsts to appear here!”

“Fine, let’s say that this guy is still alive, chances are he’s some hundred and twenty years old.” I cringe at the number, realizing the girl fuming before me is far older, “Meta or not he’s senile Paige, his neurons are busted and he can’t likely can’t pull together memories from a century ago.”

She scoffs, shaking her head in disbelief. “So, you just want to throw away that option because you think he’s senile.” I stare right back at her. “Mind you, I haven’t even told you his name, or who he is.”

“If it’s someone that doesn’t look like a hundred-year-old mummy, then you’re confusing your centuries too.”

She gives me a bitter smile, chuckles and shakes her head in dismay, “I think you’re just jealous. You don’t need to be, he aged, I didn’t, would be way inappropriate for both of us.”

I snort at her naivety, “You don’t have any idea what people are into these days, which is strange because you live in Xoxia.”

She stares at me and I stare right back, our eyes locked in an inadvertent staring contest.

Then we burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry, I just…I don’t want to risk it.”

She nods, “Right, comfort zone.”

If you could call Xoxia comfort…

“So, Uptown?”

She shrugs, “Our only choice.”

***

Uptown may be called uptown implying some sense of a singular part of the city, but the truth is the place referred to as ‘Uptown’ is several times divided.

Think what you want about Xoxia but it’s neatly arranged. The designers knew exactly what they wanted the city to do – be a hub of industry – but at the same time they also wanted a city, one with life and vigour and not the simple work man life of a factory.

Which is why it feels so surreal stepping out of Downtown, or the industrialized area and into the bustling city that is Uptown.

Xoxia has been so expertly divided that the sky looks different depending on where you’re standing. Here, the sun actually shines brightly, the snow beneath our feet isn’t mixed with soot and it’s likely that the sky here holds more than one star.

Although, that remains to be seen.

We slipped out of Downtown at the crack of dawn after further discussing what options we shouldn’t pursue. Which for about thirty minutes of discussion was the entire idea itself.

The sky may be divided between clear and polluted, but the gang politics certainly isn’t so cleanly cut.

Aside from the Vertigo gang, there are three other gangs seated in Xoxia, as well as…something of an organization, something we’re still talking about.

“Are you sure these…citizens aren’t friendly?”

I roll my eyes at Paige’s naivete. The Citizens – as the organization had begun calling themselves a few months ago – are most certainly not friendly.

“I mean, you said they’re all about taking back the city from the corporation. That’s a good thing, no more factories in Xoxia.”

“I wish they were as harmless as a neighbourhood petition to cease and desist, but they’re not, Paige. They are the common thorn in the Mayor and Steve’s side, which means they’re not something that’s easily dealt with even for people of power like the Mayor.”

“And Steve?”

“Steve has tried, didn’t get us anywhere, we lost a few men for underestimating their leader.”

“A meta?” She asks, her eyebrows raised.

“Not sure. I wasn’t there to find out and you know how far off I am from information in the gang.”

She nods.

“Besides, there’s a rumour about them being…less than cordial towards certain races,” Paige cringes at the thought, “If there’s any truth to that then it means we can easily guess what their agenda is and besides not wanting them to kill us, we also don’t need to help further their cause.”

She sighs, resigning the fact that I’m right on this one, “But that doesn’t mean any of our other choices are exceptionally pretty either.”

To that, I agree.

With the complicated organization of ‘citizens’ out of the picture, we’re left to choose between one of the other three gangs. And we have to make a choice fast as it’s getting colder outside, even with the sun up.

Checking into just any hotel would be unwise right now. Our choice has to be set and sure because the gang owning that bit of territory will be quick to come knocking once, they realize who I am or was.

Before that happens, I need to be prepared, I need to have my body ready to test my powers and my mind set on presenting a proposition for work to the leader of said gang.

“We obviously can’t go to The Questions.” Paige scoffs at the mere thought.

The Questions. Another very strange and complicated organization. For the most part their leader is very well known – known to have never spoken.

The Questions are a result of fanatics gathering together and thinking it’d be a great idea to help the silent, wandering Supervillain that they seem to worship by starting up illegal activities to fund their number one expense; breaking said Supervillain out of the Hole.

“No, of course not. The Questions are nation wide and we couldn’t even join if we wanted to.”

“Because we don’t worship Sarah Sentiment?” she smirks.

“Yes, I don’t get why anyone would worship a Supervillain whose powers force you to feel all sorts of immensely painful emotions.”

Sarah Sentiment is a famously eccentric Villain. She’s never spoken so no one knows what her goals are but she always appears at places of value, but there’s the occasional amusement park and cinema.

Thanks to her followers she can afford to buy new versions of her iconic white wedding gown and jet-black bouquet of flowers after being forced into yellow when caught time after time.

She’s the easiest supervillain to combat and capture but the one that leaves he most damage. Many of her emotional victims have either become avid followers or Villains of their own, out of their minds after encountering the woman.

“You still think she’s pretty.” Paige coughs, pinching my arm.

I let out a chuckle as I slap the offending hand away, “You think she’s pretty too!”

“I’m a girl.”

“So?”

“So…!” I groan in frustration. “Ugh, never mind. We’re left with Invincibill, Lynx and Letharguy then.”

“Letharguy sounds alright.”

“He traffics.”

“Like everyone else.”

“People I mean.”

“Oh…” She mutters.

I heave a sigh, not for the first time feeling like I’ve got the worst set of cards on my deck, “Yeah, he uses that power of his to make his victims fall asleep from exhaustion, and he’s got a lot of range apparently.”

“Sounds…familiar?”

I almost feel like crying, “Yes, very familiar, another reason I don’t want to work for him. Too much like Steve.”

“That and he could sell us off the moment he sees us.”

“That too, plus, I’m not comfortable helping to sell people either.”

“Neither am I.” She whispers, taking my hand in hers, “We can always try to run? Leave Xoxia?”

She’s right. That’s the least vile of our options right now.

But it too has its complications.

If we leave, with the credits we have it won’t be long till we’re hungry and out on the streets. I’m not old looking enough to pass off for sixteen and get a job…that’s even if there are any jobs to get.

She and I are far more likely to be picked up by local police in wherever we end up and thrown into some state orphanage that doesn’t want to be an orphanage.

We’ll be free of Xoxia and the tossed away glances, a place where everyone is self-centred and hardwired for self-preservation, even the police.

We’d be free of this dangerous environment, where everyone wants to use us for some end goal or another, this place where all we’ve got is each other.

“No,” I decide, shaking my head, “It’ll be the same elsewhere anyway, this country is rotten to the core.”

She offers me a soft, understanding smile as she shrugs, “Well, you can’t really blame the country, can you?”

No, not really. I guess any where else would be this bad if they were under the rule of some power mad dictator too.

“How about The Lynx. I hear they have a ton of fun there.”

The Lynx and their Beast-man leader and laser blasting lieutenant. The gang may as well be the banner boy for bad decisions and youthful exuberance.

However…

“True, but I also hear they’re all cannibals.”

Paige gags at this, “What! Why?”

“I wonder why too…” I trail off. The Lynx were never really an option, they have the most members but at the same time lose a ton of them in nearly every engagement. It’s like Lynx and his lieutenant are actively killing them.

Though, that might not be a farfetched theory.

“So, Invincibill?” she asks just to confirm. We’ve narrowed it down as far as it goes after all.

Invincibill. As his name crudely implies, he has the very useful, brawn-ish power of invulnerability and his name is Bill. A supe name made in heaven no doubt.

Still, the man is a criminal, hardened and as cruel as his rivals.

Steve ‘taxes’ the factory workers, as well as controlling majority of the working unions Downtown, it would be fair to say Steve had the guts to do what no one else had done; going corporate.

Unfortunately, greed is a shared sin in Xoxia. Letharguy, Invincibill and even the Xoxia branch of The Questions want a piece of what he’s raking in.

And they’ve got the manpower and more importantly, the metas to do it.

Letharguy is a bit slow on the uptake though, probably disheartened by the fact that his powers and Steve’s are very similar.

Invincibill isn’t so hesitant though. He’s already started offing many of Steve’s puppets in the unions and replacing them with his own. In single week alone there were thirteen heads of the fracking workers union.

Steve and Invincibill killing and replacing like clockwork. It’s a bloodbath.

And it’s something I don’t really want to be involved in. Unfortunately…

“Yes, Invincibill, he’s been going against Steve so hard that it’s plainly obvious for anyone to see. I’ll be of value as an insider and a meta.”

“But…?” she trails, knowing me so well.

“Yes, but…it’ll be a pain to convince me to keep me dead to Steve.”

Invincibill will no doubt want to show off his newly acquire minion if only for the fact that it’ll provoke Steve. That isn’t any good to me, but so long as I can get him to see my worth, he’ll know it’d be far more satisfying to reveal me after he’s taken down Steve with my help.

Anything to protect her.

“Let’s go. We’re in his territory anyway.”

She giggles cheerfully, swinging my hand with hers as we finally get off the bench that’s been freezing our asses off and start walking.

“Almost like this was where we’d end up going. Like fate. Like destiny.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in destiny?” I scoff and she shrugs.

I let it go not pushing for an argument, if only to preserve this moment while I still have it.